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GRAPHIC ART

A y regarder de près

Olivier Rolin and Erik Desmazières

Engraving used to be a major genre: Durer, Rembrandt, Redon, Picasso all strained their eyes developing that art form. Literature of small objects was also a major genre: Pliny, Virgil, Maeterlinck, Fabre all looked into the lives of ants, pebbles, or worms. This book brings together these two disciplines which time has pushed aside. Erik Desmazières puts into images, with etchings enhanced by ink wash painting, gouache or India ink on ancient ribbed paper, and Olivier Rolin describes, with a cascade of words, taken from technical terminologies or obsolete vocabulary, thus creating a weird treasure chest that is respectful and ironic. Who, what? The asparagus, the fly, cuttlefish bones, pine cones, a germinated potato and the pebble, which had rarely been invited to such a delightful party. The work, both spiritual and scholarly, descriptive and poetic, is a real delight which rightfully so is under the aegis of Ponge, a pioneer in the rediscovery of these objects long forgotten by Nature and daily life.


A y regarder de près, by Olivier Rolin and Erik Desmazières, Seuil, 2015, 128 p., €25.

A y regarder de près - Olivier Rolin and Erik Desmazières


Review published in the newsletter #404 - from 29 October 2015 to 4 November 2015

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